Mirecki affair

By Gerard Harbison

Posted December 26, 2005

Preamble

It is not my wish to rehash the entire history of the Mirecki affair, but rather to focus on the assault on Mirecki and the reaction. I shall therefore simply give a brief summary of the background. Paul Mirecki is a biblical scholar of some considerable distinction, having some years ago unearthed an early account of Jesus's life, the Gospel of the Savior. He teaches in the Religious Studies department at the University of Kansas, and was until recently Chair of that department. In keeping with modern biblical scholarship, he approaches early Christian manuscripts, and other material contemporaneous with them, with objectivity and skepticism, rejecting Christian premises such as divine revelation and the apostolic authorship of the
Gospels. This has led to some friction in his classes, when students who have a deep religious conviction of the truth of such premises are confronted with dispassionate analysis. Mirecki's own religious convictions do not appear to be a matter of public record, but he is faculty advisor to the Society of Open-minded Atheists and Agnostics (SOMA) at KU, the single freethinking student society in a university with 64 religious student organizations.

Lt. Kari Wempe, a spokeswoman for the Douglas County Sheriff's Department, said a deputy was dispatched to Lawrence Memorial Hospital after receiving a call around 7 a.m. regarding a battery. She said Mirecki reported he was attacked around 6:40 a.m. in rural Douglas County south of Lawrence....Wempe said Mirecki drove himself to the hospital after the attack....(and that) Mirecki described the suspects as two white men between 30 and 40 years of age. One of the men was described as wearing a red visor-like ball cap and wool gloves. Mirecki said the men left in a large pickup truck.

Mirecki himself told the Journal-World

he was driving to breakfast when he noticed the men tailgating him in a pickup truck. "I just pulled over hoping they would pass, and then they pulled up real close behind," he said. "They got out, and I made the mistake of getting out." He said the men beat him on the head, shoulders and back with their fists, and possibly a metal object...."I'm mostly shaken up, and I got some bruises and sore spots."

Mirecki also said to the Daily Kansan (the KU student newspaper)

that he spent between three and four hours at the hospital. He said his injuries included
a broken tooth.

Andrew Stangl, president of the student group Mirecki mentored, was quoted as follows:

He said Mirecki, who is the group's faculty adviser, was adamant that the beating was
related to the recently canceled course.
"That absolutely shocked me," he said, "because people don't do that in a civilized society."

"I didn't know them, but I'm sure they knew me"...Mirecki said in a phone interview that
the incident happened as he was "going out for breakfast, taking a drive and thinking about things." He
declined to say exactly where it happened, and the sheriff's department did not release the location,
except to say it was south of Lawrence [...]

Mirecki said that when the pickup truck began tailgating him, he stopped his vehicle hoping it would
pass. Instead, the men pulled up directly behind him [...] "They got out, and I made the mistake of getting out," he said.
Mirecki said the beating began almost instantly. The men punched him about the head and shoulders
and struck him with a metal object, he said.

About 6:40 a.m., sheriff's deputies were called to Lawrence Memorial Hospital to take a report on the
incident. Mirecki was treated at the hospital and released.
"I'm mostly shaken up, and I got some bruises and sore spots," he said.

The Journal World also identified what it regarded as a discrepancy in the story, in that Mirecki said he
called the police from the side of the road, whereas the police were dispatched to the hospital. The time
was specified as having started at 6:20 a.m., and was reported at 6:40 a.m.

Analysis

Despite the furious disbelief from some quarters, there are no obvious discrepancies in Mirecki's story.
Some people may find it odd that a man under some stress, and probably suffering from insomnia,
might drive out on dirt roads in the country pre-dawn and in frigid temperatures. Since I myself, on
occasion, deal with insomnia by going for a 3 a.m. walk in the woods with a night vision scope, I'm the
wrong person to comment on this.

The rest of the story hangs together; if Mirecki were returning to Lawrence to have breakfast, the site
of his alleged assault, on East 1400 or East 1500 south of 31st, would be a plausible route to First
Watch, reputedly the best place to have breakfast in Lawrence, at the 25th block of Iowa street. That a
man who'd just been subjected to a sudden assault might not know which section road he was on at the
time is hardly surprising. We don't know how much identifying information he gave to the police, but to
assume it has all been released to the public is foolhardy. And while his injuries do not indicate a
severe beating, his black eyes indicate he was struck at least once on the bridge of the nose. The
discrepancy of the phone call is hardly a discrepancy at all; how unreasonable would it for him to have
called the police from the site of the incident, and announced he was going to drive himself to the
hospital, and would meet them there?

As for his assailants, there is no reason to expect they stalked him; rather, he may simply having been
driving slowly, inducing them to tailgate, a response followed by counter response led to a violent
confrontation; and it is entirely possible one of the assailants recognized Mirecki from news accounts.
He was prominent in the news for several weeks beforehand, and probably had items displayed in or on
his car, such as a parking tag, identifying his as a faculty member of KU. Finally, it is not unusual that
two men in a pick-up might be out and about in rural Kansas at his time of year. It is hunting season,
and it is not unknown for hunters to have a little something to warm them up, impairing their
judgment. And there is no doubt Mirecki was struck in the face at least once.

The fact the Mirecki's computer was seized does suggest the police did not believe his story.
Furthermore, since the computer he uses at his office would likely be the University's property, it could
have been done without his permission, and the indication the police were investigating a possible
fabrication on his part might well have impelled the University's infelicitously timed move to force his
resignation.

Finally, while there have been several recorded instances of fabricated hate crimes recently, most
notably Kerry Dunn at Pomona, and at Iowa State, Dr. Mirecki's alleged beating does not fit the usual
pattern of such crimes. He does not fit the profile of a typical hate crime fabricator, and such
fabrications have usually been accompanied by written material that identified the fabricated incident
as a hate crime. Had Mirecki wished to construct such an incident, he surely would have made sure of
details such as the location. There would have been written threats or other physical evidence.

Therefore there is really no good reason to disbelieve Mirecki's story. It is likely most of the public
doubters are impelled by hostility to Mirecki or a dislike of the story's implications.

The reaction

Sen. Kay O'Connor (R-Olathe) was reported by the Daily Kansan as saying

kimosabe31 was so excited at his own wit (or maybe his ability to type an entire sentence, period and
all), he posted the same thing twice
Wherease F.J. Mitchell opined the cause was Dr. Mirecki's appearance:

The management of FReeper public was quite aware of all of this. After about a day, they removed some
of the most obviously violent posts, but let many of the others remain. Since Free Republic is usually
willing to remove posts it disapproves of, and ban the offending poster, one can only assume Jim
Robinson approves of the posts above. Indeed, only a month ago, a FReeper called dsc called
for the use of bloodshed against academics who disparage religion. The moderators were alerted, and
did nothing.The moderators however banned a Roman Catholic FReeper whose only offense,
apparently, was to question the Christianity of the yobs quoted above